April 6 & 8 — Contributing to WordPress

What are some areas listed on the first article that you think are the best ways for you to contribute?

• User Experience (UI)- This is the area that interests me the most. They do usability tests and point out areas that are confusing or not working. Currently there is a usability test on the image gallery and on the front end editor.
• WP Core- You can write code, fix bugs, debate decisions, and help with development.
  • “Good first bugs” for new contributors
  • Patches that need testing

Dig deeper into a couple of these areas. What process would it take to contribute? I don’t feel I know enough programming to fix anything. That being said though, I can certainly identify things in a plugin that aren’t working correctly or point out aspects of WP or particular plugins that are not user friendly and make suggestions as to how they could work better.

Why would it be beneficial for you to contribute to WordPress? Taking part in the process always gives you as an individual a little more ownership but it also keeps you as a designer/developer in the “know” so to speak. For example, if you know a particular plug-in has a known issue than you are less likely to try to use it. You can also keep up with the latest trends and fixes.

Here are a couple of interesting articles I found about contributing to Word Press:

Contributing to WordPress in Your Native Language

Why You Shouldn’t Be Worried About Screwing Up When Contributing To WordPress